They aren’t really having a mid-life crisis. But Travis and Gina Sheets want to put their vocational skills to work on the African mission field in the second half of their lives. Gina, 44, is a top economic development official in the Indiana state government. Travis, 43, is a county councilman in central Indiana, where they have a small farm. He also is a veteran of short-term overseas mission trips to build churches.

Liberia will be their new home next year, with an assist from an Indianapolis-based think tank, the Sagamore Institute, and a Reformed Presbyterian ruling elder, Donald Cassell. The Sheetses will offer their farming skills through the Liberian International Christian College. They also want to offer the gospel of Jesus Christ in the Christian missionary tradition.

For Donald Cassell, the Sheetses are an answer to his prayers for his homeland. Donald is a senior fellow at the Sagamore Institute and a ruling elder at Second RPC in Indianapolis. He came to the United States in 1980 for architectural education in Boston, practicing architecture for several years in Indianapolis. His hopes of returning to Liberia were thwarted in the early 1990s by a civil war, but he has continued to to pray for reformation and revival in his home country and works on Africa initiatives at Sagamore.

Thanks to Donald, the Sheetses heard Liberian social activist Leymah Gbowee speak at Sagamore earlier this year about the peace and reconciliation movement that helped end 15 years of civil war. At Sagamore they also have learned that 250 nonprofit groups in Indiana already are helping in Africa.

Working in the farm extension tradition, they’d like to see the country move from importing 90 percent of their food to exporting.

“There’s so much there in terms of natural resources,” says Gina Sheets. She is finishing up this year as the top economic development official for Indiana Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman. “There’s a lot of opportunity in Liberia,” Sheets says. “The people are willing, but they have lost so much.”

Founded by freed American slaves in the 1840s, Liberia was devastated in a 1990s civil war, which drove perhaps one million Liberians to other countries, including the United States. The Sheetes will live without electricity or running water. In physical fitness, the Sheets are better prepared than most Americans. Travis competes in iron-man triathlons, which take most of a day for swimming (2.5 miles), biking (100 miles) and running (2 miles). Gina runs even farther in ultra 80-mile races.

They’ve sold their livestock. Not having children, they are making a minimum 5-year commitment.

They have practiced Prov. 15:22 in trying to discern where they should serve in Africa: “Without counsel, plans go awry, but in the multitude of counselors they are established.” They sought counsel from Donald Cassell, Sagamore president Jay Hein and Sagamore senior fellow Amy Sherman. Her recent book, Kingdom Calling, sets forth Christ’s Lordship over marketplace skills—or the application of the doctrine of Christ’s kingship over business and all of life. A servant spirit on the farming side, the Sheetses hope, could open doors to share Christ, similar to how doctors and nurses have traditionally taken their skills to the mission field.

The Sheetses are part of a wave of believers who are trying to do significant work in the second half of their lives, after vocational and financial success in the first half. Texas businessman Bob Buford helps guide people in these second-half ventures, with the aim of having them use their marketplace skills in more direct Christian kingdom service. Amy Sherman calls this “deploying vocational power,” in her book. Sherman’s survey indicates that the Sheets team is one of many examples of people using work skills to advance Christ’s kingdom, both in evangelism and business development.

In Rwanda, for example, Arkansas businessman Dale Dawson has initiated several ventures designed to prompt macro-economic development in another war-torn African nation. Opening doors in Liberia, Donald Cassell recently introduced the Sheets team to Maavi Norman. Norman is the grandson of a Liberian president, William Tolbert, who was killed in a 1980 military coup against the government. Norman grew up in the Ivory Coast and is working on a doctorate at Northwestern University. “Harnessing the entrepreneurial spirit, that is the missing link in Liberia,” he said. “A lot of the young people have a short-term day-to-day survival perspective.”

The Sheets team hopes that rural families can learn skills to grow their own food and sell some as well, eventually bringing a middle class family income. They know they face a complex challenge—economic development and simple farming techniques blended with the Christian gospel. They see the challenge not as a mid-life crisis, but a mid-life opportunity to use their gifts and talents in a place of need.

—Russ Pulliam is associate editor of the *Indianapolis Star. He is a contributing editor and a board member for the* Witness.